Is it possible to use 3.0 TB HDD in Windows - 7 ?

[dan99t]

Hi,

Is it possible to use 3.0 TB HDD in Windows -7 ?

I have been using 2.0 TB HDD to store my big files. It has Crashed so I want to replace it with a 3.0 TB Western Digital internal HDD.

I do have a 2.0 TB external USB back up HDD ( Seagate GoFlex ) & want to clone it to 3.0 TB HDD to transfer all the files.

I have Acronis True Image Home to clone the backed Up Seagate 2.0 TB GoFlex HDD to new 3.0 TB WD HDD.

Is this possible & how do I go about it before I purchase a new 3.0 TB WD internal HDD ?

I will keep the old extra 2.0 TB Seagate GoFlex as a back Up of new 3.0 TB WD HDD with 2.0 TB of important files so if any one of them crashes again, I will have a back Up of important files. If 2.0 TB crashes, then of course I will buy another 3.0 TB HDD as a back Up in future.

Thanks

[JustAnEngineer]

When partitioning and formatting a new drive that is larger than 2.2 TB with Windows 7 64-bit and a suitable motherboard EFI BIOS, you need to use GPT rather than MBR. You might want to upgrade to the latest BIOS before installing the new disk.

[dan99t]

When partitioning and formatting a new drive that is larger than 2.2 TB with Windows 7 64-bit and a suitable motherboard EFI BIOS, you need to use GPT rather than MBR. You might want to upgrade to the latest BIOS before installing the new disk.

Really appreciate your help.

I have Dell T-7500 workstation.

I am not much of a techi so I don't know anything about BIOS etc.

How should I proceed from here ?

[Ryu Connor]

If this post is correct then the T-7500 has a classic BIOS only, not UEFI.

You will not be able to natively boot from a disk larger than 2.2TB.

The easiest solution is to make the disk a secondary disk (not the boot volume).

The more complex solution is to buy a controller card with option ROM that will allow for GPT boot.

[dan99t]

If this post is correct then the T-7500 has a classic BIOS only, not UEFI.

You will not be able to natively boot from a disk larger than 2.2TB.

The easiest solution is to make the disk a secondary disk (not the boot volume).

The more complex solution is to buy a controller card with option ROM that will allow for GPT boot.

Hi,

I am going to use this as a storage disk with one partition to store large files like videos etc.

Also I want to transfer data from a 2 TB HDD by cloning it to this new HDD.

Both 2 & 3 TB HDD will be slave HDD & none of them will have an operating system on it.

So how do I go about it ? I do have Acronis True Image Home which I regularly use to clone my other 500 GB HDD as a back up.

I am going to use 500 GB HDD which has Win-7 and Acronis software.

I also have 4 Hard disk slots in my T-7500 workstation.

[Ryu Connor]

If Acronis does a sector based clone you can't do it. As that would copy over the MBR partition structure from the 2TB disk. You must install the 3TB disk as an additional drive into the case. As noted before you cannot boot Windows 7 from it. You must then use Disk Management to change the raw disk to GPT, create a primary partition, format the drive, and assign a drive letter. You would then have to do a file clone (again not a sector clone) to carry your files over to the 3TB disk.

[dan99t]

If Acronis does a sector based clone you can't do it. As that would copy over the MBR partition structure from the 2TB disk. You must install the 3TB disk as an additional drive into the case. As noted before you cannot boot Windows 7 from it. You must then use Disk Management to change the raw disk to GPT, create a primary partition, format the drive, and assign a drive letter. You would then have to do a file clone (again not a sector clone) to carry your files over to the 3TB disk.

I won't be using it to boot. I want to use just as a slave storage with single partition to store large files.

How do I know if Acronis does a sector based clone ?

If it does that then cloning is not possible, right ?

In that case how do I transfer 2 TB of data from another external HDD ?

Copy paste it ? That would take forever.

Also in future I will not be able to clone this 3 TB HDD to another 3 TB HDD using Acronis ?

[Krogoth]

You can use 3TB HDDs in Windows 7, however there a few caveats.

Any partition size greater than 2TiB needs to formatted in GPT not MBR. You still need to have some kind of 64-bit OS in order to use partitions sizes greater than 2TiB. You need to use some kind of boot loader that has GPT support (part of UEFI spec) in order to boot off the said partition. You can still use the partition on system doesn't have a boot loader with GPT support as a non-bootable partition.

In event that you need to use a 3TB or greater HDD as a bootable disk. You can still format the first 2TiB into the bootable partition, while format the rest as a non-bootable partition. It is almost what is done back to overcome 2GB limitation back when FAT16 was the talk of the town.

[Stickem]

I went through this recently with a 2 TB to 3 TB WD green.
Win 7 had no problems recognizing or formatting properly.

I'm not quite sure why you are so obsessed with "cloning" your 2Tb drive.
If it has folders, copy them over. If you have normal files just shift + click copy the lot of them.
Compared to figuring out a new piece of cloning software and then making it work, it's simplicity itself.

[dan99t]

I went through this recently with a 2 TB to 3 TB WD green.
Win 7 had no problems recognizing or formatting properly.

I'm not quite sure why you are so obsessed with "cloning" your 2Tb drive.
If it has folders, copy them over. If you have normal files just shift + click copy the lot of them.
Compared to figuring out a new piece of cloning software and then making it work, it's simplicity itself.

I don't know why but I tried copying 500 GB data from that 2 TB drive with copy=paste & it was painfully slow & took almost half a day. Most files were video files.

I do a daily clonning of my 500 GB drives at night & it takes only 90 minutes & that is why I am obsessed with cloning. It is super fast & requires doing nothing manually after few clicks to start it.

But if 3 TB requires GPT then I don't think my clonning software Acronis would be able to clone the 2 TB drive because it has MBR. Right ?

[just brew it!]

I don't know why but I tried copying 500 GB data from that 2 TB drive with copy=paste & it was painfully slow & took almost half a day. Most files were video files.

Why is half a day a problem for something you only need to do once? Just start it before you go to bed, it will be done (or at least nearly done) in the morning.

[Ryu Connor]

The Windows Backup and Restore utility can do file based backups via the GUI.

You could leverage Robocopy in a batch file to copy the files.

You could install the Windows AIK and use ImageX with a batch file to do a file based clone.

[dan99t]

The Windows Backup and Restore utility can do file based backups via the GUI.

You could leverage Robocopy in a batch file to copy the files.

You could install the Windows AIK and use ImageX with a batch file to do a file based clone.

Pardon me but I am not familiar with any of them & need more help.

Here are some concerns so please show me the way.

1. I have frequent power outages lately.

2. Which one is the easiest to use ?

3. Which one would automatically start from where it left when power is gone ?

4. Which one is the fastest compared to simple copy-paste ?

5, Which one is automatic so that once setup, it doesn't require constant attention ?

Thank You. Really appreciate your help.

[just brew it!]

If you're having frequent power outages, you really should invest in a UPS (in addition to having a robust backup plan)...

[Ryu Connor]

None of them are bad speed wise IMO.

As for ease of use, the Backup and Restore program is most likely the easiest.

[dan99t]

If you're having frequent power outages, you really should invest in a UPS (in addition to having a robust backup plan)...

It is temporary & not permenant.

I do have UPS but not big enough for a 850 Watt workstation & 4 monitors which I just bought.

But do appreciate your inputs.

[just brew it!]

I do have UPS but not big enough for a 850 Watt workstation & 4 monitors which I just bought.

You could try putting just the workstation and primary monitor on the UPS. That might get you some extra runtime, and allow you to do a clean shutdown.

Also note that just because you've got an 850W PSU doesn't mean the system is always drawing 850W. Unless you've got a huge pile of fast hard drives or multiple high-end video cards, the system is probably idling well below 200W, and I'd be surprised if it gets above 400W even under full load. The PSU only draws as much power from the line as the system needs (plus 20% or so overhead to make up for inefficiencies in the power conversion circuitry).